Where the Green Grass Grows

By Avillion

Part One

Avillion stepped out of her room and sighed. It was beautiful--the sun rising over the fields was casting a golden haze across the prairie, and the sky was alight with the most wondrous variety of colors. "Sky-blue-pink," thought Avillion. That was how her grandfather had defined the particular color of a Nebraska sunrise.

It was completely silent around her, save for the chirping of the birds at the early-morning light and the occasional rustle of the wind through the trees. There wasn’t another house or road for miles, and Avillion loved the feeling of solitude it gave her. She had forgotten how fresh the air could smell and how vivid the colors could be.

As much as she loved her life with her friends at CLHQ, Avillion was a Midwestern girl. Born and raised in Lincoln, Nebraska, she had discovered at an early age how much she hated living in the city, even a small city like Lincoln. It made here feel crowded stifled, and the never-ending cacophony of car horns and screeching tires made her cringe. It had been her dream to live on a small farm far from any city, but alas, that dream was not to be.

She had been thinking more and more about her lost dream of a life in the country of late, and had subsequently become a bit depressed. It hadn’t taken long for Madeline to notice that the usually happy and garrulous Avillion had been isolated and quiet, and so she took it upon herself to "cure" the operative.

Avillion couldn’t help but smile to herself as she recalled the look on Maddy’s face when she had told her what it was that she was so depressed about. "You miss what?" the senior operative had asked, clearly not understanding where Avillion was coming from.

"I miss being outside. I miss being around horses. I miss working hard at something other than killing people and coming home exhausted at the end of the day, and no being exhausted from a mission does NOT count. I miss NOT being in the city. You’ve always known that I hated it."

"I see," Maddy said, although it was clear that she did not see. "Well, what if I arrange a vacation for you? Some of the other girls have been looking tired lately, and it could be beneficial to you all."

"Really? What’s the catch?" Avillion said, disbelieving that Madeline was being ‘nice for niceness’ sake.’

"No catch. I’ll inform the other girls and take care of the arrangements for you. Be ready to leave in three days."

And that was how they had ended up here. Avillion laughed out loud when she remembered the day they had arrived. She, Curlly, Brenna, North, Nabiki, Trace, Sherry, Sly, Rita and Nikita Fire had all piled out of the bus only to realize that they were truly in the middle of nowhere. After walking just over five miles they found themselves in the middle of a small, antiquated town. A kind-looking man walked out of the General Store, and after looking over the group tipped his hat up and said, "You ladies aren’t from around here are you?"

"No, we’re not. In fact, we’re kind of lost. Could you tell us how to get to the...let’s see, where did I write that down..." Sherry said as she fumbled around in her bag to find the piece of paper that Madeline had give to her with the name of their hotel on it. "Ah, here it is. Could you tell us how to find the Pearson hotel?"

"Pearson hotel? I’ve never heard of a Pearson HOTEL, but Frank Pearson is just over at the blacksmith shop. Maybe he’d know what you’re referring to."

"Thanks so much. We’ll check it out," said Curlly before turning to her friends. She had, unfortunately, dressed very stylishly in a black leather skirt with black leather pants underneath and a pair of black boots with 4-inch heels. She looked great, but after all of the walking in the hot sun was ready to fall over. "We need to find someplace to sit down, fast. Let’s go talk to this Frank Pearson, it couldn’t hurt."

"Sounds good," said North, "But there’s no need for us all to go. Why don’t you stay here while Nikita Fire, Nabiki and I go check him out?"

"Ok, but go fast!" Curlly responded.

Curlly couldn’t help but notice the obvious smirk on Avillion’s face, and thus couldn’t help but ask what it was that she found so amusing.

"You let Madeline pack your bags, didn’t you?" asked Avillion.

"Of course, she packed everyone’s bags. Why?"

"Oh, no reason. I was just curious," said Avillion, for once thankful for her section training.

A few minutes later everyone gathered together. North filled them all in saying that apparently Maddy had arranged for them all to stay with the Pearson family. Since they didn’t have any horses and there were no cars they would have to walk the 10 miles to the ranch. Curlly groaned in frustration, but didn’t complain the whole way like the trained operative she was.

*******

Part Two

The Pearson's lived on a huge ranch, complete with a guest house big enough for all of the operatives. Frank told them all to get cleaned up and to come up to the main house for dinner at 5 when he would tell them what they were in store for.

The ranch was very old fashioned, no electricity in the entire house. Of course the bathroom was modern, and all of the girls breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of a working shower. They each took their turn washing off the day’s grime and getting ready for the evening.

After cleaning up Avillion opened up her bag to unpack what she had peeked at earlier. Maddy had outfitted them for the occasion, and Avillion was happy to see that Madeline had managed to get her own boots out of CLHQ--she didn’t enjoy the thought of breaking in a new pair. Once she was dressed Avillion laughed to see her own reflection--cowboy boots, blue jeans, white button down cotton shirt, and a black cowboy hat--she certainly did look the part!

The other girls were dressed in similar fashion and seemed to be enjoying the novelty of it, realizing that other than the boots the clothing was actually quite comfortable. Avillion explained to them that they just had to give the boots time, they were actually very comfortable once you got used to them.

When everyone was gathered on the porch and ready to go they suddenly realized that Curlly was no where to be seen. Trace called "Are you coming Curlly? We’re going to be late!" into the house. After a few moments they heard Curlly cry "I’m NOT coming out, you guys can go on without me."

Knowing what her problem likely was, Rita answered "It’s ok Curlly, we’re ALL dressed like that. I’m sure you look fine. But come on, we have to go and it wouldn’t be the same without you."

"All right," responded Curlly, "But if anyone laughs I swear..." she let the thought trail off.

A moment later she appeared in the doorway, and it took everything the other girls had not to laugh. Finally Brenna said "Oh my, looks like Maddy DID know who planted the whoopee cushion on her chair!" With that the other girls lost it. To their credit, they did last longer than most would when confronted with such a spectacle.

Curlly was dressed in a pair of cow-patterned black and white jeans that were tucked in to her boots--they were too tight to go over the tops like the other girls’. She wore a red belt with a big shiny gold and silver buckle depicting a man being thrown from a bull on it. Her cowboy boots were much like those the other girls were wearing, but instead of being black or brown they were made of shiny red leather with white embroidery and multi-colored rhinestones lining the tops.

Her shirt was a brilliant fuscia color, complete with fringe across the front and on the sleeves and a yellow diamond pattern covering it. Over the shirt was a brown suede vest with more fringes and a plethora of rhinestones arranged in a diamond pattern on it. Finally came her hat, which was considerably larger than the hats that everyone else wore. Made of white plastic, it had a thick fuscia band with a long feather stuck in it. In short she was a fashion disaster--a bright, sparkling, shiny fashion disaster.

****

Once they arrived at the main house the girls were promptly seated and appropriately fussed over by Frank’s wife, Barbara. Dinner was wonderful, if not particularly informative, and the girls talked and laughed throughout. Finally Sherry got a semi-serious look on her face and everyone quieted--for the moment.

Sherry turned to the Pearson's and said "Ok, what’s the game plan? What are we doing here?"

Frank looked at Barbara for a moment and said, "You really don’t know, do you?" After seeing the confused looks on everyone’s face he continued. "This whole town, this ranch, it’s all a part of a ‘theme,’ if you will. The year around here is 1879, and everyone acts and dresses accordingly. We aren’t exactly actors, nothing is scripted and we all make our living doing the jobs you see us do. This is a working horse ranch, and for the next two weeks you will be expected to help us run it. We have only two hired hands because we always have guests, but we need all the help we can get. Any questions? Good...well, enjoy, and remember--nothing is scripted, so expect the unexpected."

After returning to their "home" the girls spent a brief amount of time discussing their circumstances. "I think it sounds like fun!" said Nikita Fire, and everyone else agreed. "We should be off to bed," said North, "We have a busy day tomorrow." With that said the girls slowly started filtering back to their bedrooms until only Avillion, Brenna, and Curlly were left.

After a few moments of silence Brenna and Avillion looked at each other and again started laughing--they just couldn’t help it!

"Glory! How long is this going to be funny?" said Curlly, indicating her clothing.

"Oh I don’t think this will EVER stop being funny Curlly, sorry," replied Brenna.

"And you!" Curlly exclaimed, turning to Avillion, "You knew about this, didn’t you? You were laughing about Madeline packing my bags while we were still in town!"

Trying hard not to laugh, Avillion said "No! I swear, I didn’t know! I had looked inside my own bag and seen the boots and hat, and figured you would have something similar. I never expected...THIS!!" She said, losing control and laughing again.

As much as she tried not to, Curlly couldn’t help but see the humor in the situation and started laughing too. Soon all three girls were howling with laughter, until they abruptly realized that the other girls were asleep, and decided that they should be off to sleep themselves.

****

Part Three

The next morning the girls woke up to a huge breakfast that Barbara prepared for them in their own kitchen. As they ate she explained the day’s chores, and the girls split them up evenly. They spent their morning mucking out stalls, feeding the horses (there were well over 150) getting fresh water, and basically just learning their way around the ranch.

After lunch they continued doing odd jobs around the ranch, and they were all amazed at how much there was to do! The had to fix one of the pasture gates, repair a couple of broken saddles, clean out all of the tack, air out the horse blankets...the list went on and on. After another large dinner with the Pearson's the girls retired to their house, all except for Avillion. As much as she had loved working all day, she was desperate to get in the saddle, and after making sure that it was all right she was determined to do just that.

She chose a beautiful dark bay gelding named Thunder and was placing the saddle on his back when she felt someone walk up behind her. Expecting one of the girls she whirled around quickly, only to find herself within inches of a very tall, very handsome, very unknown man. Trapped between him and her horse, she decided to play it cool and let him speak first, praying that he wasn’t a hostile.

"I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you ma’am," he said, tipping back the cowboy hat that he wore. "There isn’t usually anyone out here at this time."

"That’s ok," said Avillion, sounding more confident then she felt. "I’m just going out for an evening ride. Who are you again?"

"Oh! Sorry, my name is Jack, I work for the Pearson's. They mainly rely on the guests, but they need a couple of full-time employees also. I was just about to go for a ride also, if you’ll wait a minute I’ll get Spook ready and we can go together. You really shouldn’t go riding alone in these parts anyway."

"And what do you mean by that?" questioned Avillion. She couldn’t explain why, but she felt very comfortable around this man, comfortable enough to be very annoyed at his comment. "I’ll have you know that I can take care of myself."

"Hey calm down! That’s not what I meant, I just mean that you don’t know the land very well, and if something happened to you no one would know for quite some time."

"Oh, all right then," Avillion said, slightly embarrassed. She finished saddling Thunder and waited for Jack to catch and ready Bullet, a beautiful black horse. They rode for well over an hour, alternately walking and cantering. Avillion was overjoyed at the opportunity to ride again, and found herself very glad to have Jack along for company. They talked little as they rode--it didn’t seem necessary--but once they were back to the stables and were undressing their horses they found they had quite a lot in common.

They talked about everything from their childhood to their favorite movies as they walked around the grounds. Jack apologized a couple of times for "breaking character" to her reassurance that she wouldn’t tell anyone, and if he noticed that Avillion was very silent about what she did now he didn’t say anything. Finally Avillion noticed that it was quite late, and commented that she needed to be getting home before the other girls started to worry about her.

"All right," said Jack, "but will you come for a ride with me again tomorrow? Same time?"

"I’d love to!" exclaimed Avillion, a bit embarrassed by her own enthusiasm.

********

She walked into the house and realized abruptly that almost everyone had gone to bed. North was asleep on the couch while Brenna and Curlly sat quietly reading in each of the easy chairs.

"Where have you been?" Brenna whispered. "We were worried!"

"What? Oh! Sorry, I forgot to tell you--I went for a ride after dinner."

"Yes we knew that, but that was hours ago. I don’t suppose you being gone for so long had anything to do with the man that just dropped you off?" Curlly questioned.

Avillion was about to answer her, but suddenly realized what she was wearing. She hadn’t had the opportunity to see much of Curlly today, and only now was she able to get the full effect. She was wearing light pink jeans that were covered with embroidered flowers. Her shirt was red with white checks running across it and rhinestone studs for buttons. But the best part, the piece de resistance, was the vest. It was covered with black sequins and had little cowboys all over it done in red and white beads. It took every ounce of strength that Avillion had not to laugh out loud, but after a few minutes she managed to compose herself enough to answer.

"It might have something to do with him, but I’m tired and we all need to wake up early tomorrow, so you’ll just have to wait until morning," Avillion said as she walked back to her room, where she promptly collapsed in a fit of laughter.